Can Tho Sugar Company (Casuco) General Director Nguyen Thanh Long said although the company had reduced its sugar prices to VND8,000 per kilogram compared to early last month, it is still hard to compete with smuggled sugar, which is sold at about VND7,600 per kilogram.

Long said the company outlets in Can Tho City were now only able to sell between 50 and 100 tons of sugar daily, two to three times lower than before.

He also said around 300-400 tons of sugar are smuggled into the Mekong Delta region each day.

In An Giang Province, smuggled sugar bags are often falsely labeled before market distribution to avoid anti-contraband detection.